“I’m sorry,” Lexi said, surprised that she actually was. No one should suffer that sort of loss. “What...what happened to her?”
“She was murdered.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, mainly because she didn’t know what else to say.
“You’re sorry, they’re sorry...everyone’s sorry but no one will do anything to the man responsible for killing her!”
And this has to do with me, how exactly?That was the question she wanted to ask. What she actually said was, “H-he got away?”
“Oh, the man who physically ended her life was killed a long time ago. I finally took care of the guy who helped him, but the one...the one who was actually responsible? He’s still out there. He’s still living his life as if nothing ever happened.”
“I don’t understand. If this man really is responsible for your fiancée’s death and you know who it is, then why isn’t he in jail?”
The guy let out an almost hysterical laugh, his voice raising nearly a whole octave. “Jail?” He laughed again. “He’s one of the government’s golden boys. They’re not going to put him in jail. They’d give him a fucking medal before tossing his pretty-boy ass in jail.”
The guy was making absolutely no sense whatsoever.
He came over to her, then. Thinking he was going to hit her again, Lexi shrunk back into the chair as far as she could. However, rather than hit her, he began to untie the ropes from her wrists.
“I’ll help you.” Lexi was desperate to get through to him. “Tell me his name...the person responsible for your fiancée’s death. Tell me who it is, and I’ll help you find him. I have a friend who does this sort of thing for a living. He can—”
“Who, Soldier Boy?” He laughed again, moving into a squat to begin working on the ropes at her ankles.
“Soldier Boy?” Lexi parroted, her tone not hiding her confusion.
Still chuckling oddly, he finished his task before resting his elbows on his thighs and saying, “You know, I think you might be onto something. Weshouldcontact your friend. I’m sure he’ll be very interested in what I have to say.”
“Okay,” she said warily. “I-I don’t have his phone number memorized. It’s in my phone, and its...crap, it’s at the diner.” Thoughts of Joe threatened to break her, but she somehow managed to push them back and stay focused. “His name is Trevor Matthews. He works for a private security firm downtown. Risk. It’s spelled R-I-S-C. Look it up. I’m sure there’s an emergency contact number or something.”
The man ignored her rambling and yanked her up from the chair. Lexi would have fallen straight to the floor if he hadn’t caught her with an arm around her waist. She’d sat in that position for so long, both of her lower limbs had fallen asleep.
He guided her over to the uneven table. She tried to fight back, to use this as her chance to escape. But with her legs numb and her arms not much better off, Lexi only managed to flail around like one of those inflatable tube guys she’d seen in used car lots.
More than a little annoyed, her abductor forced her to lie down with her head at the end closest to the floor. Again, she tried to move away, but it was no use. He was too strong and had her raw wrists strapped down before she could even lift herself off the table.
“I almost forgot how much you like to fight,” he taunted as he walked over to his propped-up phone.
Grimacing from the pain of the leather rubbing against her raw wrists, Lexi called out, “Wait! I thought...I thought you said we could call Trevor. I thought you wanted my help.”
“Oh, I do want your help, Alexis. In fact, you’re going to help me right now.”
He tapped the front of his phone, and its screen lit up. It was too small and too far away for her to make out the details, but she knew exactly what she was looking at...the man had just opened the video app on his phone.
“W-what are you going to do?”
Smiling down at her, he said, “We’re going to give Soldier Boy a little show.”
Frustration mixed with fear. “You keep saying that,” Lexi gritted through her teeth, her voice getting louder and louder. “Who are you talking about? Who is Soldier Boy?”
With a perplexed expression, the man said, “You really don’t know, do you?”
She let her frustration fly. “I know you’re a sick sonofabitch who gets off on hurting innocent people. I’ve done nothing to you.Nothing!”
“You’re right.”
His soft words gave her pause. “What?”
“You’ve done nothing to me. Your boyfriend, however, is a cold-blooded murderer.”
